I haven’t spent any real time on scooters, but been riding with all kinds of PEVs. I think you’re right that scooters are deceptively safe looking. EUCs these days are pretty safe within their designed operating range. But I’m very biased because they’re my favourite device.

Weirdly now, handlebars feel like a superfluous crutch - but I still don’t risk riding a bike without a good grip on them. Risk assessment is a funny thing, and ultimately comes down to lived experience.

If you’re open to a small learning curve, there are electric unicycles that would tick all your boxes, especially for compact portability.

I guess you had to be there.

And happy to not still be there.

Gaaaaaay!

(Am I doing it right?)

Good call. I have some good memories of hanging with keas when I visited NZ.

The reality in Australia is nothing like what the world seems to think it is. The dumb laws are just performative actions by populist politicians. If I recall, the game bans were mostly because of one politician who made it his personal crusade.

Not much is actually enforced. Every time someone mentions one of these draconian Australian laws I have to check if it’s actually real. I hear about it more from US media trying to paint us as some kind of dystopia, probably because of our gun laws.

We’re not perfect though. We could be doing much better with progressive legislation, but I feel more free here than I ever have in the US.

It would be a dream if CANZUK happened, then it was joined by California and Cascadia. We could call it CACACANZUK.

That said, you would already be a powerful nation without joining anyone else. Don’t wait for us to get organised.

come in handy

Given that one of those arms is a reproductive organ, you’re not wrong.

I’d be a cockatoo. Pretty long lifespans, intelligent, they can fly, and spend most of their time just fucking shit up for fun.

It really is a mental illness, but it’s normalised and celebrated.

He definitely lost his bark.

I think she’s just a bit cold, and wondering if she should put on a tshirt because he looks pretty comfortable.

Lots of technology has reached a good-enough plateau, so I think we’ll start to see some left-field ideas. I’m just going to say realistic robot pets.

I saw something recently about a 4k restoration, but possibly not all regions.

Two movies that usually appear on lists like this, but I don’t see them: The Fountain, and The Fall.

That sounds like my mum’s cat. She was a feral, left on the doorstep of the pub.

She’ll hiss and growl at everything, but you just distract her with a toy, then it’s all purrs and snuggles.She has a weird obsession with licking faces, which evolved from biting faces.

Ah, Summernats. I used to work at a servo in Canberra. That time of year was nuts.

Usually I was the only staff on site, but we’d have four staff on for nats. One would basically be handling the car wash exclusively. Two would be constantly restocking food and drinks. We’d get a shipping container of extra stock dropped off to keep up.

The bus home would have to go through a cloud of tyre smoke, and half the passengers would get off at the north side brothels and strip joints.

I never actually went to the festival itself, but I feel like I got most of the experience.

Car theft is more likely to be acted on than any other kind of theft, in my experience, but it still has to be convenient for them.

One time my car was stolen, I knew it had only just happened so they were certainly still driving it near my home, and the police just said sorry, we’ll let you know if it turns up somewhere. I called back a few minutes later when I remembered that it’s on a car share program so I can track the location via GPS - that got them interested, and I stayed on the phone giving updates while it took them only 20 minutes to make an arrest.

The same car got stolen a couple of years later, when I wasn’t able to track it live. I located it myself, and they just turned up to do a few minutes of forensics then left.

They’re definitely understaffed. When I went to the station to do a report there was only one constable in the building, even though it was a time of day/week when they’re extra busy.

I just noticed where Australia is… I live in Pangaea’s butthole. Not surprised.

Wait, is that what pansexual means?

Plan some rest stops in advance, about every two hours. A few minutes of looking at the scenery and fresh air can help a lot with alertness. Even better if it’s quiet enough for a power nap.